In the ongoing standardisation work in WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) evolution in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), a new concept called HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) has been introduced for Release 5. The transport channel of HSDPA supports fast link adaptation (LA) where the bit rate is varied in each transmission time interval (TTI). The bit rate is varied by mapping the transport channel into a variable number of parallel multi-codes with a variable effective code rate (ECR). Mapping is performed by using a QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying) or 16QAM (16-quadrature amplitude) modulation. For link adaptation purposes, user equipment (UE) may periodically transmit a channel quality indicator (CQI) report to the network. The CQI report recommends the transport block size (TBS) to be used during the next transmission time interval as well as the modulation scheme and the number of parallel multi-codes. The CQI report is described in 3rd Generation Partnership Project; 3GPP Specification 25.215, Version 5.3.0. However, it is possible that the CQI report, transmitted by the user equipment, may suggest using a higher number of multi-codes than the network has available for HSDPA transmission. In such cases, the CQI report would not directly be applicable. These situations may take place, for example, if there are only 5 multi-codes reserved at the network for HSDPA transmission and at the same time, the CQI report from the user equipment suggests using 11 multi-codes. Situations like this are very likely to occur in real networks. Thus, the CQI report cannot directly be used in the above-described situations. There is a need for a solution that gives a robust and spectrally efficient link adaptation estimate also when using the CQI report in situations described above.